How to Ensure Healthy Eyes All Through the Cold Winter
As you are well aware, it’s important to take care of your eyes all year long, but winter and cold weather can make good eye care particularly challenging. If you’re looking for ways to keep your eyes healthy throughout the winter months, here are some resources you may find useful.
Superior Vision Learning Center Winter Eye Care Tips
The folks at Superior Vision offer a number of useful tips about protecting your eyes in the winter, for example, dealing with the issue of winter dry eyes. Dry eyes tend to be more sensitive and vulnerable, and dry winter air can dry out your eyes fast.
Some suggestions include the regular use of humidifiers, and keeping contact lenses moist with regular use of rewetting drops.
WebMD How to Fight Dry Itchy Eyes in Winter
WebMD is a great resource for all health care related matters, including eye care. They too recognize the challenge of dry, itchy eyes during the winter months. In addition to the humidifier mentioned above, WebMD suggests drinking plenty of fluids to keep your whole body hydrated, wearing eye protection when you go out, and not letting car heating vents or other heat sources blow directly onto your face, which can dry out your eyes as well.
Williamson Eye Institute Winter Eye Health Tips
Another terrific resource to check out is the Williamson Eye Institute blog. Their winter eye health tips include taking some time away from electronic devices. Staring at a computer screen is a known stressor of eyes, and combining it with the natural drying of eyes that occurs in winter can cause you some real eye problems.
When you look at screens, you blink less, meaning your eyes get less moisture, which adds to the dry eye problem. Experts recommend the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, break eye contact with the screen and look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Smart Vision Labs Winter Eye Care Tips
Smart Vision labs has their own winter eye care tips to offer. This includes trying to refrain from touching or rubbing your eyes even more in the winter, as you are more likely to come into physical contact with people who have a cold or the flu, and you can potentially transfer germs to your eyes.
They also point out that if you enjoy winter outdoor activities, you should take care of your eyes just as you would during summer outdoor fun, with sunglasses or goggles, as the sun’s UV rays can be just as damaging in the winter, even if it’s not hot outside.
Beaumont Vision Seasonal Tips to Keep Your Eyes Healthy in Winter
Of course, Beaumont Vision has its own useful tips to keep your eyes healthy in winter, including wearing eye protection when doing chores like shoveling snow or even working on indoor protects in the garage.
Beaumont Vision also recommends that you check in with regular eye exams to make sure your eyes are strong and healthy regardless of the season. If you’re in the Portland area, we are available year ‘round to see you, with advanced equipment and highly-trained optometrists to make sure your eyes are healthy as can be. To schedule an appointment, just give us a call at 503-331-3937 today.